The International Trade In Launch Services: The Effects Of U.S. Laws, Policies And Practices On Its Development

Rockets or launch vehicles, though sharing the same technology, have both military and civil applications: they can be used as missiles or as 'ordinary' transportation vehicles. As a consequence, national security and foreign policy considerations stand in the way of the international launch industry becoming a normal service industry subject to free trade (GATS) principles.

The book discusses this conflict between national security and trade interests and the way it affects the United States launch trade relations with China, Russia and Europe.

It also analyzes the extent to which the respective U.S. laws, policies and practices, in particular those relating to the export of satellites and launchers, restrict the development of these and other countries' commercial launch activities, and it reviews the prospects for a - GATS or space law-based - liberalization of the international trade in launch services.